Plastic: Foe, Microbial Plastic Degradation: Friend

By: Alyssa Gibeaut

Figure 1: This image illustrates the potential interactions between marine organisms and microplastics in marine environment from Urbanek AK, Rymowicz W, Micronczuk AM. (2018). Degradation of plastics and plastic-degrading bacteria in cold marine habitats. Applied & Microbiology Biotechnology. Volume 102, Issue 18, pp 7669-7678.

Plastic is a high demand product in which 350 to 400 million tons are produced yearly. However, this plastic accumulates into the environment causing adverse effects in all ecosystems. Therefore, microbial plastic degradation has become a popular topic in science. Microbial plastic degradation involves the use of enzymes from specific microbes that act on plastic—synthetic polymers. The top three synthetic polymers commonly used in the economy are polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyvinylchloride (PVC). The findings show that PP and PVC had no defined enzymes or pathways useful in the degradation process. On the other hand, PE, shows promising success in plastic degradation in a large number of bacterial genera, including both gram-negative and gram-positive species. As of now, plastic degradation occurs through a combination of weathering and photodegradation which is the exposure of UV lights and the mechanical disruption caused by waves, wind, and the grinding on rocks. Through this process, synthetic polymers break apart into micro- or nano-plastics. The major concern for such plastics is their ability to enter the food chain, in turn, eventually into our intestines—toxic and hazardous to the body. Microbial plastic degradation is a high demand research since there is still rather limited information about the diversity of enzymes and microbes acting on synthetic polymers.

Article Citation:
Danso D, Chow J, Streit WR. (2019). Plastics: environmental and biotechnological perspectives on microbial degradation. Applied & Environmental Microbiology 85; e01095-19. https://doi .org/10.1128/AEM.01095-19.